vaginal progesterone effective in intramuscular progesterone for embryo transfer

Miscarriage is a leading cause infertility among women, progesterone a female hormone. This medicine is used to treat infertility and to prevent miscarriage in women with a condition called corpus luteum insufficiency. Recent studies suggests that progesterone in oil (PIO) is superior to vaginal progesterone (VP; Prometrium) for endometrial preparation in frozen embryo transfer cycles (FET), improving the live birth rate and reducing the rate of miscarriage. PIO has disadvantages including cost, pain, and stress of administration.

A recent study in Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada says that In their single-centre experience, vaginal progesterone was non-inferior to progesterone in oil for endometrial preparation in frozen embryo transfer cycles.

A retrospective analysis comparing pregnancy, miscarriage, and live birth rates for PIO versus VP for medicated FET cycles, from 2017 to 2020 at a single fertility clinic. A total of 745 participants were included in the study; 438 received VP, and 307 received PIO. Univariate and multivariate binary and ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed to compare the rates of pregnancy, miscarriage, and live birth between VP and PIO.

The results demonstrated no difference between PIO and VP with respect to the rates of pregnancy (51% vs. 53%), miscarriage (20% vs. 18%), or live birth (31% vs. 34%) (all P > 0.05).

The researchers concluded that In a single-centre experience, VP was non-inferior to PIO for endometrial preparation in FET cycles.